Project #80846 - Major Essay

23 Philosophy Tutors Online

Due Date: 4 Oct (must be submitted online via VUC)

Length: 1000-1200 words

Weight: 50%

Outline

Questions of how to account for the self, its relation to the world, and what the self should do have been a central preoccupation of philosophers and theorists at least since the fourth century BC (Ancient Greece).

In this subject we have investigated the theories of several modern philosophers in an attempt to get to the bottom of these questions. In this essay you will need to defend one of the views presented against the view of at least one of the other theorist.

Your Task / Question

The theoretical and legal understanding of the self as a coherent and responsible agent goes back at least to John Locke’s minimalist account; does Locke’s theory of the self have the explanatory power to account for the complexity of the self or do we need to develop new understandings?

To do this task, you will need to …

You need to identify how the competing understandings of the self we have studied differ from each other and take a stand on the matter. Do you accept Locke’s theory to be an adequate understanding of the self? Why is it (or not) adequate? In what way do the other theories develop (or not) on Locke’s account? Once you have decided on your stance on Locke’s theory you will need to establish an understanding of how the theory (and the other theories in the debate) relate to the question of responsibility. To do this well you need to identify why responsibility is important to establishing the self (and our understanding of the self).